Ouch. Things just go from bad to worse for the Blackberry vendor, as it’s revealed that it’s sitting on a stockpile of unsold Playbooks and Blackberry smartphones worth a billion bucks.
To make matters even more pointy, that’s not in vendor returns; Bloomberg reports that the unsold inventory is purely based on what’s sitting in RIM’s own warehouses; whatever retailers and carrier partners are holding would be in addition to that sum.
While I can’t say I’ve been all that wowed by some of RIM’s smartphones, I’ve still got a massive soft spot for its physical keyboard based ‘berries, and the physical build quality of the Playbook is still, in my view, quite enticing. But clearly RIM’s having problems shifting stock, and it looks like there’s no easy way out. [Bloomberg via AppleInsider]